'I wanted to be an explorer'

I took a job in an engineering laboratory. I was given a problem that people thought would be impossible to do and we managed to get it solved within three or four years at most: the first RAM memory of the digital computer. And that brought me into the whole area of transition metal oxides and as a physicist I was interested in magnetism and electronic transport. I’m just very happy that I got into problems that were interesting to work on and solve.